Unfortunately they didn't serve a meal on the flight to Sapporo, or rather Chitose, which is about an hour bus ride away. So, at that point, I was starving and tired, not to mention a bit stressed about the situation I found myself in summed up by:
1) Where was going to sleep?
2) How the fuck did I get pickpocketed in the first half hour of my trip...? All that talk about it being such a safe country, and my phone got stolen. After 20 minutes of sweating and backtracking, I found it lying on the first ATM I had attempted to use... Thus, proving my point about how damn safe this country is.
Just like Chile, I went in without a plan. I had a general idea what I wanted to do, but I had not looked much up. I think the sheer amount of luck or fate or whatever that landed me in a loving family's home in Santiago really spoiled me. Quite honestly, I didn't know what to expect. I guess I just didn't expect this trip to be so mentally difficult.
I think it's moments like these when the people in my life are asleep half way around the world that really show me how much human interaction I need to be happy and function well.
Point being that I was so exhausted from very little sleep over the previous 48 hours that it was seriously affecting my emotions.
Lost and slightly unhinged, it took me a day or so to really appreciate some of the very funny differences between here and there. For example, the bus fare only takes exact change. I had at least read that before getting on the plane, but when I was actually in the process of paying, everything was in Japanese, and I couldn't tell which part was the change machine. There was a clear slot to put coins so after putting my ¥1000 bill in, I dropped a ¥100 coin in to pay for the remaining ¥30 I owed. In doing so, the bus driver reacted with every single part of his body and face... It looked as though he had failed in his duty to help me understand the system and that he had wasted my, roughly, 60¢ or so.
After just sitting in the middle of downtown Sapporo for about 20 minutes, I made the decision to walk to a park I saw on the map. It was a few miles away, and it was a hot and humid night. Walking behind a drunk, young salary man the majority of the time, I finally got to the park around one in the morning drenched in sweat.
After a bit of wandering, I decided the best place to post up for the night was a picnic table... Ironically, I was eaten alive by mosquitos that night. By my count, I had anywhere from 30 to 40 of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment